The present techniques relate generally to polyolefin production. More particularly, the present techniques relate to operating regimes for a polyolefin polymerization, including operating polyolefin polymerization reactor systems at pressures above a critical pressure of the diluent employed in the reactor.
This section is intended to introduce the reader to aspects of art that may be related to aspects of the present techniques, which are described and/or claimed below. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present techniques. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.
As chemical and petrochemical technologies have advanced, the products of these technologies have become increasingly prevalent in society. In particular, as techniques for bonding simple molecular building blocks into long chains (or polymers) have advanced, the polymer products have been increasingly incorporated into various everyday items. For example, polyolefin polymers, such as polyethylene, polypropylene, and their copolymers with each other and other monomers, are used for retail and pharmaceutical packaging, food and beverage packaging (such as juice and soda bottles), household containers (such as pails and boxes), household items (such as appliances, furniture, carpeting, and toys), automobile components, pipes, conduits, and various industrial products.
Specific types of polyolefins, such as high-density polyethylene (HDPE), have particular applications in the manufacture of blow-molded and injection-molded goods, such as food and beverage containers, film, and plastic pipe. Other types of polyolefins, such as low-density polyethylene (LDPE), linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE), isotactic polypropylene (iPP), and syndiotactic polypropylene (sPP) are also suited for similar applications. The mechanical requirements of the application, such as tensile strength and density, and/or the chemical requirements, such as thermal stability, molecular weight, and chemical reactivity, may determine what type of polyolefin is suitable.
One benefit of polyolefin construction, as may be deduced from the list of uses above, is that it is generally non-reactive with goods or products with which it is in contact. This allows polyolefin products to be used in residential, commercial, and industrial contexts, including food and beverage storage and transportation, consumer electronics, agriculture, shipping, and vehicular construction. The wide variety of residential, commercial and industrial uses for polyolefins has translated into a substantial demand for raw polyolefin which can be extruded, injected, blown or otherwise formed into a final consumable product or component.
To satisfy this demand, various processes exist by which olefins may be polymerized to form polyolefins. These processes may be performed near or at petrochemical facilities, which have ready access to the short-chain olefin molecules (monomers and comonomers) such as ethylene, propylene, butene, pentene, hexene, octene, decene, and other building blocks of the much long polyolefin polymers. These monomers and comonomers may be polymerized in a liquid-phase polymerization reactor and/or gas-phase polymerization reactor to form a product including polymer (polyolefin) solid particulates, which may be termed fluff or granules. The fluff may possess one or more melt, physical, rheological, and/or mechanical properties of interest, such as density, melt index (MI), melt flow rate (MFR), copolymer content, comonomer content, modulus, and crystallinity. The reaction conditions within the reactor, such as temperature, pressure, chemical concentrations, polymer production rate, and so forth, may be selected to achieve the desired fluff properties and through these fluff properties control end use product properties.
In addition to the one or more olefin monomers, a catalyst for facilitating the polymerization of the monomers may be added to the reactor. For example, the catalyst may be a particle added via a reactor feed stream and, once added, suspended in the fluid medium within the reactor. An example of such a catalyst is a Zeigler-Natta catalyst containing a tetravalent titanium complex on a silica support. Further, a diluent may be introduced into the reactor. The diluent may be an inert hydrocarbon, such as isobutane, propane, n-pentane, i-pentane, neopentane, and n-hexane, which is liquid at reaction conditions. However, some polymerization processes may not employ a separate diluent, such as in the case of selected examples of polypropylene production where the propylene monomer itself acts as the diluent. A diluent for the loop process may have a low tendency to dissolve the polymer fluff and maintain adequate circulation in a loop reactor. The diluent also transfers heat from the polymerization taking place in the fluff-catalyst particles. Further, a diluent may have a high vapor pressure, and low heat of vaporization, for easy devolitalization of the polymer fluff particles so that the resulting polymer is free of residual diluent.
The discharge of the reactor may include the polymer fluff as well as non-polymer components, such as unreacted olefin monomer (and comonomer), diluent, and so forth. In the case of polyethylene production, the non-polymer components may include a diluent, such as isobutane, having a small amount of unreacted ethylene (e.g., 5 wt. %). This discharge stream is generally processed, such as by a diluent/monomer recovery system, to separate the non-polymer components from the polymer fluff. The recovered diluent, unreacted monomer and other non-polymer components from the recovery system may be treated, for example, by treatment beds and/or a fractionation system and returned as purified or treated feed to the reactor. Some of the components may be flared or returned to the supplier, such as to an olefin manufacturing plant or petroleum refinery. As for the recovered polymer (solids), the polymer may be treated to deactivate residual catalyst, remove entrained hydrocarbons, dry the polymer, and pelletize the polymer in an extruder, and so forth, before the polymer is sent to customer.
Liquid phase polymerization reactors may be run in operating ranges that maintain the contents in a liquid phase below the critical temperature and pressure of the diluent. However, this may not be optimal for certain polymer systems. For example, some polymers may be soluble in liquid diluents under these conditions, leading to reactor fouling. In other cases, bubbles may form under current conditions, causing cavitation of the impeller blades for the circulation pump. This cavitation may damage the impeller blades, forcing expensive repairs and loss of production.